Moldova

Yawn...
Stretch...
Yawn again.

I'm sitting here at the computer this morning and as Mel puts it - I feel kind of beat up. Tired. Sore here and there all over. But mostly tired.

We went to Moldova yesterday.

Now Moldova is not the reason we feel this way. We feel this way because we went to Moldova yesterday. :)

Actually, I wouldn't mind going back to Moldova some time. In fact, I wouldn't mind going in to Odessa, spending the night and then leaving early and going in to Moldova for the day, returning and spending the night again in Odessa. There is one little village, not far from the border, that I would love to go back and explore. Photo ops abound in that village - thatched roofs, goats and geese, old babushkas walking along the muddy streets, and very interesting Moldovan Orthodox shrines set up here and there all over the place. Yes, lots of photo ops.

But as we sped (ha ha) right through we got just barely a glimpse of what was there.

Sasha picked us up at 7:00 yesterday morning and we drove in to Odessa. Along the way we stopped at Kobleva for a potty break. This little village/truck stop area has changed so much in the last few years that it is hardly recognizable from the Kobleva we saw over 10 years ago. This is the first photo I took yesterday, took it because I thought it was funny. There is no "a" sound in Russian or Ukrainian like the "a" in the English word 'hand' - thus the "e" in the last word.Sasha had forgotten that I had had knee surgery and forgot to bring a step-stool to help me get in the van. I actually was fine getting in, getting out was a little harder as it bent my left knee more than it wanted to bend, but it was doable and probably good for my knees. However, Sasha was concerned. So, at Kobleva he saw a guy selling chainsaws, went over and asked him how much they cost, told him that was more than he was willing to pay, and then got a chunk of wood off the end of a log and brought it over for me to use as a step-stool. (I think that was a kind of polite way of getting what he wanted - ask the price, say it was too much, get for free something else. But maybe he really did want a chainsaw?) Unfortunately I did not think to take a photo of it.

We picked Ira up in Odessa. She was there on a translation/interpreter job and we had asked her if she would do the same for us through the border crossings in to Moldova. Ira lived in Moldova several years as a child and has been back many times to see relatives and get the never-ending red tape paper work done that happens here when you loose your passport, get married, move, buy a house, breathe, live, have a baby or die. She didn't tell us until we were already on the way that she needed to go to some office and file papers to receive some sort of document there in the capitol city of Chisinau, Moldova. Fortunately we had planned on going all the way to Chisinau anyway, simply because the Moldovan government requires that you stay in the country for 3 hours before you leave again (I think this is to cut down on smuggling - see Crossing over, Part 1 and Part 2. It was fun to see how excited Ira was over 'going home' to Moldova, and her actually being able to show the country to us.

South of Odessa it started to rain, and then to snow. Here are two photos from the border crossing:The flag is impossible to see :) so, here it is again:

We stopped at a little cafe for a toilet break and I took these next 4 photos there. First, they had a little outdoor picnic area beside the cafe, with these cute little huts and tables. The thatching is very similar to what was on some of the houses we saw. Also note the pine trees! Pine trees! There were a lot of pine trees in Moldova. No forests, but planted here and there. It was still raining, with a bit of snow mixed in. This guy was standing under the canopy to keep dry while he smoked.Here is the sign for the area where we were at. Note that nothing is written in Cyrillic!This was the best part of the road, wonderful - it lasted maybe 20 kilometers.I was able to get a good photo of this church - yea! Note the sides of the road - mud, muck, more mud. This church sits on top of a hill with a village below it, nestled in a valley. On the way back the village was hidden in the valley while the pale color of the church glowed in the evening twilight and it looked to be all alone with nothing around it for miles. Very beautiful effect.Ok, so this photo looks like it's a photo of Sasha's shoulder hands and neck. Actually, it's a photo of a herd of sheep and goats that had just crossed the road. This photo is for Sue! I told Ira that if she can find a sheep fleece for me - I want it (if I can afford it, of course!). I wish the photo had turned out better, but we were on the washboard section of the highway (99% of the highway) and the camera focused inward instead of outward (which is not always a good thing for anyone to do...).The next several photos were taken in Chisinau (pronounced Kishinyove in Russian, Kishinow in Moldovan, kind of, I hope I'm close :) )This first one is of the Gate of Chisinau, apartment buildings which form the 'gate'.Billboard with interesting message. Moldovan is a romance language, so you if you know some Spanish, you can understand at least part of the message.

Once we were inside the city limits of Chisinau Sasha stopped and asked a couple of young men how to get to Pushkin Street. They had a general idea and told us to go straight. Farther down the road we stopped at another place and Ira jumped out, ran over to a taxi and asked the driver how to get there. He gave us good instructions. We found the building she needed and she went in. A few minutes later she came out, disappointed, saying they told her to come back the following day, early, and then she could pick up her document that evening. She decided that she would go with us to get something to eat, and then catch a taxi from there to her relatives home, spend the night and start again the next day. She and Mel then left to go exchange money.

We wandered around awhile, trying to find our way back to the road we had come in on. European cities were not built on grids, like American cities usually are. We drove up this street, back through an area behind some buildings, down another street, past a statue to someone important, past a city park, the wrong way down a one-way street, and finally, voila! the street we needed. We drove on over to a McDonalds we'd seen on the way into the city center and stopped for dinner.

Unfortunately I did not get a photo of what was happening this whole time we were wandering around. Snow! The most snow we've seen all winter. Huge, wet flakes were falling and a stiff, bitter wind was blowing. Blizzard conditions. We parked a block or so away from the McDonalds and by the time we'd walked up to it, we looked like snowmen. The snow was so wet and heavy that after shaking it off, our coats were wet. About 3 inches or more fell in about an hour. Fortunately it was not cold enough to freeze into ice on the highway. Photo: Inside the restroom at McDonalds, where we ate dinner. I wonder what Ronald McDonald is saying? I have no idea, actually. "Don't flush the tp! Put it in the trash can!" or "Employees must wash their hands! And so should you!" or "Enjoy a Happy Meal!" - no, I know it's not that because all of the McDonald menu items in both Ukraine and Moldova are exactly the same as they are in America - Cheeseburger is Cheeseburger, and so forth. Anyway, here he is, the multi-lingual Ronald McDonald:

Ira got her things from Sasha's van and went over to catch a taxi to her relatives apartment. We took off and headed for home. I sent Melinda a text message saying it was snowing, please pray for our safety. By the time she replied, we were out of the city, down the road a few kilometers, it had stopped snowing and the sky was partially clear! Here is a photo of my cellphone. I thought the name of the cellphone company was funny.

I won't write about the actual border crossings. Too much, plus it would probably be mostly boring. Needless to say, we got through both sides with a minimum of problems. Thank God for His protection along the way! We arrived back home at 12:40 in the morning.

Here is a map showing our basic route.You may be able to see on this map, or on your own map, that there is actually a shorter route from Odessa to Chisinau. We did not take the Trans-Dnister Route because - that area is at war with Moldova, trying to seperate and become their own little independent country. Big brother Russia to the north quietly encourages this for their own political purposes. It is dangerous for Ukrainians to go through there, and it is even more dangerous for Americans. Marshrutkas, buses, semi-trucks and private cars take other routes into and out of Moldova. Such is the world in which we live. We were perfectly safe in Moldova - we just stayed away from the Trans-Dnister Region. (We even saw and heard an American young man at the McDonalds. Why are Americans always so LOUD!?? We try to keep as quiet as we can, on the street and usually in cafes. You can spot an American almost immediately if for no other reason than we are so loud compared to the nationals. In our loudness we often become targets of crime as we travel. Sad, really. Mel's voice has become much quieter here in Ukraine. Ok, ok! Enough commentary! :) :) )